In these days of high environmental awareness, all levels of government have the responsibility to give residents healthy choices as they go about their daily lives.
A local case in point where we believe government is missing that mark is the parking regulations on Ringwood Avenue near Edge Road, the main entry point to Laurel Elementary School. Rather than a healthy choice, a county decision to permit parking in the bike lanes along the last 100 yards of Ringwood before Edge is creating an extremely hazardous situation for children, and their parents, who are biking to school.
In February, Menlo Park resident Manfred Kopisch created quite a stir when he shared a dramatic video on the Almanac’s Town Square Web site showing his 5-year-old daughter Hannah riding her bike on Ringwood, extremely close to the sea of parked cars that regularly clog the shoulder of the road near the school. The video also clearly shows cars whizzing by just a short distance from this child.
This is a problem for all cyclists who use Ringwood to travel to and from Laurel or Menlo-Atherton High School, at the corner of Middlefield and Ringwood. The first third of a mile of Ringwood, from its intersection with Middlefield Road, is in a relatively open and safe bike lane. But within 300 feet of the school, the bike lane disappears into a sea of SUVs and minivans, parked there by parents delivering their children to school.
Mr. Kopisch, who accompanies his daughter to the K-2 school every day, cannot understand why county officials have turned a deaf ear to his pleas to simply ban parking on both sides of Ringwood for the 300 feet near the school, so young cyclists can roll up to the Edge crosswalk and then safely make their turn into the school grounds. He would like the county to simply ban parking near Edge immediately.
But due to the complicated jurisdiction at Laurel School, which is located in Atherton, but serves children in unincorporated San Mateo County and Menlo Park, it will take a huge effort to establish a Safe Route to School program similar to one already in place at Oak Knoll, another elementary school in the Menlo Park City School District.
Menlo Park has already hired a consultant to begin this process, which will lead to a master plan and a federal grant application, which could take up to two years or more. Last year’s Menlo Park City Council made the project a priority. Crosswalks, sidewalks, restricted parking or closing some streets to through traffic could be part of the solution, according to Menlo Park officials.
In the meantime, the county should take immediate action to alleviate the traffic crunch and dangerous bicycle lanes on Ringwood. There is absolutely no reason why this cannot be done now as an interim measure while the Safe Routes to School application is being prepared. Bureaucracy should not trump the clear need to protect our children, and provide them with a safe way to bike to school.
